Dubai: The much awaited Dubai Cricket Council’s popular Under-16 inter schools cricket will begin October 11 after a gap of six years.

The draw for the tournament, which will be known as Consolidated Shipping Services (CSS) Homeward Bound Inter School Cricket Championship, was held in the presence of Emirates Cricket Board and DCC officials and sponsors at a colourful function held at the Shangrila Hotel on Sunday evening.

Waleed Bukhatir, Chairman of the Domestic Cricket Development Committee and ECB executive member, addressing the gathering of school officials, said “this event will go a long wait in promoting cricket at grassroots level in the UAE and help inculcate interest in the game at an early stage.”

Mazhar Khan the Administrator of the ECB said that as the event is being held just before the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 it will boost cricket development in the UAE.

“With the UAE playing in the ICC World Cup against India, Pakistan and Ireland, the event will play a part in UAE’s development of the game,” he said.

Khan, on behalf of ECBm thanked C.S. Kaladaran of CSS Group for coming forward to sponsor the students’ event. The event is also supported by Smart Bag, Petrotech, MyCricket.ae and AreaSqft.com.

G. Unnikrishnan, representing the CSS group, said they are honoured to be part of this event coming ahead of their 20th anniversary while Niranjan Chawla, who always supports the DCC event through the Debonairs Pizza, assured his support as he was a former student of Indian High School, one of the participating teams.

The first round matches will be of 25 over duration and the semifinals and final will be 30-over matches.

“Matches will be played on weekdays at Fair Grounds at the Dubai Men’s College with the morning game starting at 8.30 and the afternoon match starting at 1.30pm. The final will be on a weekend. The schools can register a maximum of 20 players but a player cannot play in the final if he has not played any match earlier in the tournament,” said Shiva Pagarani, Convener, Media, Finance, Administration and member of the executive committee.

Teams and group: Group A: Dubai International Academy, GEMS Modern Academy, Our Own High School, English Language School and HH Shaikh Rashid Al Maktoum Pakistani School.

Group B: The Elite English School, Arab Unity School, Indian High School, Delhi Private School and The Winchester School.